


External Heart

by AddisonZhang



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Begging, Blood and Torture, Crying, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Degradation, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Episode 9, Everyone Just Wants to Protect Eiji but Everyone Fails, Forced Prostitution, Gang Rape, Gang Violence, Hostage Situations, Humiliation, Kidnapping, Loss of Innocence, M/M, Mind Control, Multi, Non-Consensual Bondage, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Non-Consensual Voyeurism, Prolonged Emotional / Physical / Sexual Abuse, Rape/Non-con Elements, Using Eiji to Hurt / Punish Ash, You Have Been Warned, but so much worse though, episode 10
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-07-29 06:40:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16258736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AddisonZhang/pseuds/AddisonZhang
Summary: Yut-Lung said it best: "You're unbelievably strong against attacks toward yourself, but you're really weak when it comes to attacks toward your loved ones."a.k.a  What if there were no miraculous escapes, no back-up, and no mercy? Banana Fish is tested & Arthur and Dino use Eiji to punish Ash.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Here we go again fam...<3
> 
> This prompt is based on Banana Fish ep9&10 which were already so sad and awful but (you know me) I'm about to make it that much sadder and more fucked. So yes, there will be scenes taken almost directly from those episodes and a lot of it will also be changed. This piece is also inspired by THIS AMAZING FANART: 
> 
> https://www.pinterest.com/pin/291819250850651558/
> 
> If you know who drew this, please tell me so I can give credit because I cannot find them. 
> 
> Much love to my prompter Renee~ you da bomb.com xoxoxo

**Shorter**

 

As soon as Yut-Lung brought Eiji into it, Shorter Wong knew that there was no way he was getting out of this alive.

He could go along with the spying for the sake of his big sister--hell, he could even go through with the kidnapping itself!--but knowing what Golzine’s gang had planned for Eiji was the end of the road. There was just no way that Shorter would let that happen to him!

It would destroy Ash.

So he clung to the Japanese boy’s unconscious body like he was a precious child, holding him close in the midst of those monsters as if to shield him from their predatory gaze--even though he knew that there would be consequences for his sentimentality.

They might torture him for his disobedience.

Doesn’t matter. He couldn’t just hand over an innocent boy to be raped and tortured for no reason other than to hurt his friend. There was enough violence and abuse in this world that he and Ash inhabited already--he couldn’t possibly relinquish Eiji to that fate, too. Shorter couldn’t be the one to heap more burning coals on Ash’s head.

They would probably kill him, he realized.

The thought made Shorter’s stomach churn with dread and for half a second he almost considered just handing the foreigner over to his fate. But…no. He’d killed countless others. If it was his time to take a bullet between the eyes then so be it. But then again, he had a sister in Chinatown to think about…

The Chinese boy took one long look at Eiji’s face--peaceful, unaffected, slumbering soundly in his arms. How lucky the boy was to have lived so long and suffered so little. Even now, though he had been drugged, kidnapped, and put in grave danger, he was allowed to sleep peacefully--unafraid. Even though Shorter didn’t feel any special attachment to the Japanese boy, he could understand and respect Ash’s fondness of him. Eiji was a picture of everything they’d lost over the years. Eiji was hope. Eiji was everything beautiful in the world.

Shorter grit his teeth resolutely and banished any last bits of fear from his mind. He would protect this boy for Ash’s sake or he would die trying.

“Shall I wake up the little Japanese kitten.”

Yut-Lung’s sultry voice sent a shiver down Shorter’s spine as his thin arm snaked around Shorter’s shoulder to prick the boy with an acupuncture needle, rousing him in an instant. Eiji’s wide brown eyes fluttered open and he took in the room as if in a haze--cloudy vision swirling from face to face, trying to make some sense of his surroundings. When his gaze settled on Shorter, the larger man bit his lip regretfully.

“We’re not in LA any more, Eiji,” he told him, answering the unspoken question that was written all over the boy’s face. “We’re back in New York, now. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry? Wha--why? What’s happening?”

Shorter struggled to find a way to respond that didn’t make him seem like a traitor, but one of the other mafia bosses cut in, saying, “Take the boy to his chambers for now. I want this one prepped for the experiment immediately. Our guests should be arriving shortly; we don’t want to keep anyone waiting.”

 _To his chambers?_ “Wait, no!” Shorter began, clutching Eiji even closer to his chest, but there were hands all over him before he could prepare to fight back and he was dragged from the couch, Eiji torn from his strong arms with ease.

“Shorter!” Eiji cried frantically. He was clearly frightened now, although the look of confusion on his face betrayed the fact that he still didn’t understand what was happening.

“Why are you looking to him like he’s your friend?” Yut-Lung sneered at Eiji, slinking a thin arm around his neck to hold him still while Shorter was pulled backward from the room. “He’s the one who betrayed Ash and brought you here.”

Eiji’s wide eyes slammed onto Shorter’s face. The sight of them made Shorter want to dissolve into thin air. “Shorter?” the boy gasped, “That can’t be true!”

“Oh it’s true, all right,” Yut-Lung cooed rather dramatically. He was clearly enjoying Eiji’s confusion and the look of shocked betrayal that slowly spread over his features. “Ask him yourself. He’s been spying on Ash for us all along.”

“Shorter?” Eijie questioned. The hitch in his voice made Shorter turn pink with something other than rage. He felt deeply ashamed of himself but what was he supposed to do? They were going to kill his sister!

“Eiji, I--” he stammered out some useless explanation, hardly aware of what he was saying as he was dragged from the room. The last thing he saw as the doors swung shut in front of his face was Eiji’s wide eyes filling with tears.

 

* * *

 

 

 

He expected torture, so when they strapped Shorter down to the medical chair he wasn’t phased. He didn’t pay much attention when the creeps in lab coats cut his shirt off of him bit by bit, peeling the swatches away from his skin and tossing them into the trash. And even as the redheaded scientist filled the syringe--Shorter was only half listening. He quipped back at him--some typical bravado that he always spit out in perilous situations. It calmed him down and gave him time to dissociate from what would happen next.  

But all the while, on the inside, he was thinking about Eiji.

What were they doing to the poor kid? They had made their intentions clear enough before: those disgusting pigs were going to use him to hurt Ash and Shorter had been in this game long enough to imagine a thousand specific variations of how they could do that. But he tried not to think about the details because it made him hate himself all the more.

Still, images of Eiji bound and naked came to mind with every beat of his rapidly rising heart, making him sick. Ash had tasked him with protecting Eiji, but Shorter brought him right into the lion’s den. He bit his lip and tried to keep up the bravado that was his only defense against this goddamn doctor--coming closer and closer to him with that needle--

“You’re using me as a lab rat?” he heard himself say. Sure enough, when he snapped back to reality long enough to be concerned with what torture was about to be inflicted upon him, Shorter saw that the doctor was indeed about to inject him with the infamous drug. “Damn it!” he hissed. The prick from the needle was nothing compared to the burn that followed, flowing up his arm like a living thing. “I’ll curse all of you--” he threatened.

And then Eiji was being dragged into the same room--fully clothed an apparently uninjured. “Eiji!” Shorter cried, so relieved to see that the boy was okay that he almost forgot about the pain for a moment.

But he couldn’t shut it out for long.

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

**Eiji**

 

It didn’t matter what they told him, Eiji _knew_  that Shorter wouldn’t just betray Ash like that. He could feel it in his bones. Shorter was an odd character and Eiji was not conceited enough to think that they were friends, but he knew for a fact that Shorter was a good friend to Ash. He would never betray him outright. There were unseen factors here--he just _knew_  it! Plus, the way that the Chinese boy had looked when the men literally dragged him away from Eiji…

It was clear enough. Shorter had been trying to protect Eiji, not hurt him.

Which made it all so much worse.

“Shorter!” Eiji called to him, trying to reassure him, trying to calm him down somehow. Shorter’s purple hair flopped around wildly as he shook his head, frightened of nothing and close to panicking. The monitors all around the room were blinking with signs of activity as his heart rate spiked.

“The hallucinations are starting!” the redhead in the labcoat announced. “I can make him subconsciously believe anything I want now.” Then he grabbed Eiji by the hair and bashed his head onto the table in front of Shorter, saying, “This boy is the embodiment of your fear. You will suffer horribly unless you kill him.”

 _What?!_ Eiji’s heart jumped up into his throat. _Kill me?!_ “Shorter…” he choked out, watching the Chinese boy’s face closely. This couldn’t really work, could it? After Shorter had tried so hard to keep him safe, they couldn’t make him do this, could they?

But the look of terror that rose and solidified over Shorter’s features took away any hope that Eiji had.

“Kill him and rip out his guts,” the wicked doctor practically chuckled, shoving Eiji even closer to Shorter’s helpless form with a hand on the back of his collar. Even though he couldn’t move, it was obvious to Eiji when Shorter tried to lean back to get away from him--all of his muscles tensing uselessly against the metal table as he struggled. 

“Shorter--”

Shorter let out a shout of horror, shaking his head violently as if to try and make Eiji disappear. Defeated, Eiji felt hot tears welling up within his eyes. _Shorter…_ He was right there in front of Eiji but it was like his brain was gone. Just as the tears began to fall, Eiji overheard a comment from the fat boss--the one Ash called Dino--from where he watched coldly with Arthur a few paces away.

“We’ll show this to Ash,” he said matter-of-factly. “He can watch his best friend tear apart someone that he cares about so much. It’ll be pure hell.” He may have said more but the panicked cries that began to pour from Shorter’s lips as his condition worsened drowned everything out.

“Shorter, it’s okay! It’s me!” Eiji tried again, feeling his own panic rise as the true horror of the situation finally occurred to him. But Shorter didn’t seem to hear his words--he only panicked and tensed up at the sight of him, like Eiji’s mere existence was a torment.

Then someone else said, “Take that one back to the room to wait for the guest’s arrival,” and just as quickly as Eiji had been dragged in he was being taken away. He tried to struggle but there were two men holding him now and they easily overpowered him.  

 

* * *

 

 

 

Still reeling from what he had seen in the laboratory, Eiji could hardly keep track of his surroundings as he was paraded through a serious of maze-like hallways. The men who forced him along were talking among themselves. Occasionally they made some comment about him or at him, but Eiji wasn’t listening. He just kept thinking about what was happening to Shorter.  

After hearing so much about Banana Fish and searching for more details for so long, to see it up close like that should not have been as shocking as it was. But Shorter had been prepared to protect Eiji from the gang--even at the cost of his own life!--and now he was going to be tortured endlessly until he murdered him?! It was hell on earth.

Warm tears continued to stream down Eiji’s cheeks as he thought it over. Was Shorter really going to be forced to kill him? And in front of Ash?! These people were monsters.

“Here you are, cupcake,” one of the men holding Eiji said suddenly. He looked up and saw that they were back in the boss’s chambers where he had been sent to wait before. A large hand fell onto his back and shoved him through the door frame, dropping him to his knees. “Papa will be here to play with you soon.” And then they slammed the door in his face, the metallic sound from above indicating _an exterior lock meant to keep him in._

Not that he could have escaped anyway. Thin arms were on him in an instant, helping him rise and pulling him over to the bed.

“Don’t cry, darling,” a slick voice counseled him. Eiji looked up through tear-filled eyes to see Yut-Lung beside him. “You really need to toughen up. Those cruel dogs might like it if you cry but Papa prefers a composed kitten.”

Innocent as ever, Eiji had next to no idea what the Chinese man was trying to say to him--that is, until he had been paralyzed by a near invisible needle yet again. Although he was immobilized, Yut-Lung left his senses in tact this time. Helpless and horrified, Eiji could do absolutely nothing to protect himself as he watched the other boy swiftly strip him of his sweater and white pants.

“Not a scratch on you,” Yut-Lung observed casually, tracing a finger up the front of Eiji’s bare chest. “Good. He’ll like that I think.” Then, long bony fingers were slipping under the elastic of his boxers, pulling them down over his thighs so that Eiji was completely bare.

The poor boy would’ve whimpered if he could, but his tongue felt impossibly heavy in his mouth. That in and of itself was almost a relief to him. He knew that Ash and the others had likely been through this nightmare before--Ash had practically told him so time and time again--so Eiji should be able to take it too, right?

Holding on to that thought, Eiji did his best to keep his breathing steady and simply pray rather than panicking or feeling sorry for himself. He thought of Shorter and he prayed for him. He thought of Ash and he hoped that he would come to rescue him. But then he thought otherwise.

 _Keep him away from here _,__ he prayed. He remembered Dino’s words, his awful plan to torture Ash with the death of his friends… _I don’t care if I die, just please don’t bring Ash into this hell again._

Before long, Eiji was naked and laying prone on his back, his arms raised above his head so that his wrists could be tied to the elaborate bed frame. The thick rope was irritating to Eiji’s sensitive skin. It jiggled and scratched his wrists as Yut-Lung pulled the final coil through the loop and secured the knot tightly.

“There. All ready for him, kitten,” Yut-Lung said. Then he relaxed on the bed beside Eiji and let his robe drape seductively off of one shoulder. “Now we wait.”

 

 

 

* * *

 

 

**Ash**

 

He knew that it was a trap but he had to come anyway. There was literally no choice.

Those bastards had Eiji.

Preparation for Dino’s ruse of a dinner party was as humiliating as ever, but Ash was more than used to it. He played along like the perfect whore as he was washed and dressed in a top tier suit. The jade earring was a surprise but even that was no sweat off his back.

“It’s a gift from Papa for his little lynx,” one of the goons who had been tasked with his preparation jeered at him, rolling the expensive jade stud between his thumb and forefinger for Ash to see. “Are your ears pierced?”

Of course, the goon had doubtlessly been made aware that he would be required to pierce Ash’s ear for this. He was just asking to be a dick about it. How typical, Ash thought. And how typical of Golzine to try and belittle him like this moments before he had to walk into a trap. He could almost hear the bastard’s deep voice in the back of his head, saying, _“Go ahead, little boy, why don’t you change your body for me--just for fun.”_

The sudden stab of a needle through his earlobe hurt but it was nothing compared to the other varieties of pain that Ash had experienced in his life time. It was more psychological than anything, but he didn’t flinch or make a sound, and when the jade stud was firmly embedded in his lobe he rolled it between his fingers, looked to the goon, and said, “How do I look? Pretty as a picture?”  

“Tch. Come one, they’re waiting for you.”

Although he wasn’t physically coerced into the dining room, Ash’s metaphorical leash was practically palpable.

People gasped when he entered the room--even those journalists gawked at him. He felt a familiar ruffle of discomfort but he smiled instead and sat at the table with no indication of his true feelings.

He was here to save Eiji. Nothing else mattered.

 

 

* * *

 

 

**Eiji**

 

When Dino got the call that his guests had arrived and left the pair of them behind--nude--in his bed, Eiji had been so relieved that he didn’t even think about whom or what “guests” might entail.

“Something on your mind?” Yut-Lung asked suddenly. Eiji looked up at him and blinked a few times before replying.

“Are you okay with all of this?” he asked as he watched the Chinese boy redress in his silk robe, seemingly unaffected by the fact that they had barely been spared from Dino’s fat cock. Although there had not been enough time for the mob boss to begin touching Eiji, he had just had his hands all over Yut-Lung’s lean, pale body and yet the other boy seemed perfectly composed.

“Of course. It seems you’ve had a much happier upbringing than the rest of us,” Yut-Lung clucked, shaking his head at the Japanese boy. “I can’t see why Ash likes someone as innocent and irritating as you. He’s done this countless times before as a prostitute. You do know that right?”

Eiji swallowed thickly, saying nothing. In theory he supposed that he did know that, but he tried not to think of Ash that way. It was awful to imagine him having to submit to that fat, awful, criminal _ever_  let alone beginning at such a young age.

Just then, the telephone on the dresser rang again. It was a closed line--only callable from inside of the mansion. Someone must have been trying to reach Yut-Lung, Eiji realized, and sure enough, the other boy picked up the receiver before it could ring a second time. “Yes?” He listened closely and nodded to himself. “Alright. I will have him ready in a minute.”

Hanging up once more, Yut-Lung turned back to Eiji and began to untie him. “Your presence has been requested. Hopefully you can walk straight by now.” He was referring to the lasting effects of the acupuncture paralysis which were still wearing off, but when the ropes fell away Eiji was able to move his arms and sit up without any trouble.

“Here,” the Chinese boy was saying a moment later. He had a bundle of clothes in his outstretched arms, offering them to Eiji.

Unused to being naked and feeling terribly uncomfortable, Eiji rushed to grab the clothing and redress himself. It was only after the baggy gray dress shirt was half way on his body that he finally realized these were not his clothes. By the looks of them, they didn’t belong to Yut-Lung either.

“Whose clothes are these?”

But Yut-Lung only shrugged. “Who knows. Golzine keeps a whole dresser of them. Just put them on, you don’t want to keep them waiting.”

Eiji did as he was asked, grateful to be covered up again, and before even a minute had passed the door swung open to reveal a pair of Dino’s men. “Is he ready?” one of them asked. Yut-Lung nodded at them and stepped aside to clear the line of sight between the men and Eiji. “Good,” said the other. They crossed the room and grabbed Eiji’s arms to pull him up from the mattress. “Let’s go, kitten,” the taller one sniggered.

The fact that these men were obviously aware of Eiji’s purpose in that room made his cheeks turn pink with embarrassment.

Leaving Yut-Lung behind, the men led Eiji back through the maze of hallways, this time heading to a new room in the lowest level of the building. He could sense the danger in the air before they even arrived at the door. The way that they gripped his arms a little more tightly than before, the tense gait of their broad shoulders, and even the way that their small talked had changed and become more hushed than before made it clear that he should fear his destination.

Sure enough, when the goons pushed open the double doors to the ominous basement room and forced Eiji inside, his heart sank. Shorter was there--maybe twenty feet in front of him--looking manic and close to death. He was doused in sweat and scratches, as if he had been fighting with himself for the past hour and losing. And worst of all, at the sight of Eiji he stumbled backward and held his head like he was truly being tortured.

“Shorter--” Eiji tried, but a stronger voice drowned his out.

“Let me show you something fun, Ash.”

 _Ash?!_ Eiji looked around the room frantically, his heart sinking to his feet. _No…_ How had he missed him before? Sure enough, Ash was just ahead and to the right, his arms stretched out painfully and chained to the ceiling.

“Eiji!” Ash cried, clearly just as upset to see Eiji in this place.

But Eiji was yanked forward by the front of his shirt and dragged away from the two guards before he could even meet Ash’s eyes. Arthur didn’t seem to care about Eiji’s unstable footing one bit as he hauled the smaller boy across the room and tossed him in a heap on the floor at Shorter’s feet. He winced as his knees crashed against the hard floor with enough force to bruise.

“Here is your enemy,” Arthur said, giving a grand motion in Eiji’s direction. “Kill him.”

“No, Shorter!” Ash commanded from the right, but Eiji couldn’t bring himself to tear his eyes away from Shorter for even a moment to look at him. The poor boy was panting and shaking with the effort to control himself despite the torment that racked his bones at the sight of the Japanese boy.

“Go ahead and kill him,” Arthur prompted Shorter, tossing a small blade in his direction. “Dice him up. Give us a good show for the lynx here. Torture him to death and pull out his guts.”

Something changed in Shorter’s face. The Banana Fish was going to win, Eiji realized. No one could fight it. Not even someone as strong as Shorter.

"Shorter--" Ash gasped, as if somehow his voice alone could free Shorter from this torture. But he was ignored. 

“Here,” a knife was dropped onto the floor beside Eiji as well. “You’d better fight back if you don’t want to die,” Arthur told him.

Eiji's mouth fell open, horrified. He couldn't! “No…Shorter please, it’s me, Eiji,” he tried to plead with the man. If only he could get through to him somehow! He knew that Shorter wanted to protect him, not hurt him!

 

But it was no use.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this is terrible but I just needed to practice writing something to get over this writer's block. Uninspired at the moment. Send your prompts my way people.

****Eiji** **

 

“Shorter?” Wide-eyed and thrumming with pain, Eiji lies still on his back, pinned down by the weight of Shorter’s limp body. “Answer me!” he gasps out.

 

But there is no reply

Shorter’s naked upper body is flush against Eiji. The Japanese boy can feel how sweaty Shorter’s skin has become--like he was burning up with a fever--but even more than that, a creeping, wet heat is spilling out of him and draining like a faucet all over Eiji’s front.

He has to be dead; Ash doesn’t miss.

 _Oh my god…_ “Shorter!” Eiji cries weakly, his chest constricted under the weight. _Ash killed him!_ The thought chokes him up in a way that makes it impossible to even cry. He just stares wide-eyed at the ceiling past Shorter’s head--totally frozen in shock. _They made Ash kill him…_

“Right through the heart! Wow. What a pal,” Arthur is saying from somewhere above. Eiji misses the rest of whatever cruel taunt he is saying because the guards are on him in an instant, pulling Shorter off of him and forcing him back up to his feet despite his wounds.

The jolt of leaving the ground finally snaps Eiji back to the present events. “Leave him alone!” he argues, struggling fruitlessly against the hands that hold him as Shorter’s body is taken away.

Ash, too, comes out of his own bubble of misery for a moment to realize what is happening. “Don’t touch him!” he shouts threateningly. But Golzine’s men ignore them both, leaving with Shorter’s body hung limply between them.

And then Eiji is being led away from Ash as well. The men holding him begin walking him back to the door, dragging him along without his consent. He slams his feet against the floor and wriggles furiously, trying to get away from them because he can’t leave Ash! Not after that! Ash needs him!

“Eiji!” Ash calls. There is blatant fear in his voice.

“Ash! No!” Eiji shouts back, craning his neck to peer over his shoulder at the blonde boy one last time before the doors close behind him. He kicks and screams for Ash, shocked and angry tears managing to fall from his eyes the same way the Shorter’s life blood had run out of him--unconsciously…openly… “Ash!!”

“Shut up,” one of the guards snaps, giving Eiji’s body a rough jerk.

Before he knows it, he finds himself in a dark bedroom. The men toss him down on the bed and loom over him like shadows, saying, “Lucky you, you’re off duty tonight. Golzine doesn’t like messy pets.”

For some reason, being called a ‘messy pet’ stings Eiji in a way that he didn’t expect. He bites his lip and scowls at them, trying to look tough despite his ever flowing tears. Hovering just beneath his field of vision, he is keenly aware of how messy he has become: the oversized dress shirt that Yut-Lung dressed him in has been pulled open and slashed. Worse still, he’s splattered from head to toe with scarlet red blood--both Shorter’s and his own.

When the men turn to go, leaving him alone in the darkness, he shouts at the door and slams his fists against the bed frame, his despair manifesting in anger. He wants to yell curses! He wants all of these monsters to rot in hell!

_Shorter… Ash…_

He can’t even think about himself even though his whole body is stinging from Shorter’s knife and he has no idea what will happen to him now. No, all he can see is Shorter’s final expression. It has been imprinted into his mind like a bad nightmare. Only it’s not a nightmare; this is reality.

 

This has always been Ash’s reality.

 _Oh, Ash…_  Eiji drops his head into his hands and cries at the thought of how devastated Ash must be right now. He knows that he was used as bait and it makes him sick. If Ash had never come here then he wouldn’t have had to be the one to pull the trigger! _You shouldn’t have come to rescue me. I’m not worth_ that _ _.__

__

__

****Ash** **

__

“Where are they taking him?” Ash asks. For once, his gaze stays low, hovering somewhere around Arthur’s feet. He can’t bring himself to look the bastard in the eye right now--not with two rivers of shameful tears running down his face. Not after what they just made him do.

“I told you: he’s going down the same road that you did,” Arthur gloats, coming close to Ash’s front to make sure that his presence is felt. “He’ll get passed around the circuit and when Dino is bored of him, we can use Banana Fish to make him kill _you_. How does that sound, pretty boy?”

“Please stop,” Ash practically whispers. The words sound weak even to his own ears but he can’t help it. The idea of anything else happening--he can’t take anymore! “I’m begging you. Don’t hurt him. Just…kill me if you want to. I know you hate me, Arthur. So kill _me _.__ Leave him out of it.”

“I plan on killing you, don’t worry.” Arthur raises an arm to press the tip of his blade against Ash’s cheek. “I’ll have fun with it. But not before I make you scream.”

“Arthur.”

The prick of the blade drops away from Ash’s skin as Arthur turns to the sound of the voice.

 _Golzine._  With some effort, Ash raises his eyes enough to glare at the old man. He had been sitting up in the booth before with those American officials, just casually watching Shorter’s ordeal like it was some kind of show. _Fuck him _,__  Ash thinks. It starts small in the back of his head but it grows and the tears on his face turn cold as his anger builds.

“You did surprisingly well today, Arthur,” Dino says. He sounds removed and calm as ever. “The clients seem very satisfied with that display.”

“Thanks. I enjoyed it myself, too,” Arthur chuckles, rubbing a hand back through his hair as he shifts into a more confident stance.

Dino looks at him for only a moment before turning to Ash. “And what a rousing display you put on, my pretty lynx.”

“Fuck you, old man,” Ash snarls. He hates the fact that his angry expression is marred by tears--he would wipe them away on his shoulder if that wouldn’t just make him seem more pathetic.

“Is that how you talk to me, boy?” Dino challenges, his tone still light as he takes another step in Ash’s direction. “I think you’ve forgotten your place.” He comes to stand directly in front of the boy and lets his fat hands fall on top of the boy’s shoulders. “Maybe it’s time for you to have a little reminder. Hmm?”

“Don’t you fucking touch me right now. Not right now,” Ash whispers. He doesn’t have to talk loud because Golzine is just inches away from his face. But the boss ignores him as usual and starts unbuttoning Ash’s fine, white dress shirt.

“Shush,” Golzine says. He spreads the material away from the center to reveal Ash’s well built chest and abdomen. The boy grimaces and narrows his eyes at the boss hatefully. He’s not embarrassed of this anymore--even Arthur’s presence couldn’t make him blush--but he just killed his best friend. He can’t handle this right now.

“Stealing from me, lying to me, running away from me like a stray dog. I thought I trained you better than this, Ash,” Golzine goes on. He strokes the flat of his hand down Ash’s front until his palm is resting against the top of his belt buckle. “You’ve forgotten your place, whore.”

Normally Ash could feign a smile at that--ignore that--but not right now. “Enough of this,” he hisses.

Golzine dips his hand a little lower and cups Ash’s crotch in response, not caring one bit when the boy’s whole body go stiff. “Obviously you __do__ need a reminder, because last I checked, pets like you don’t tell me what to do.”

“Fuck you,” Ash barely grits out.

“Have you ever seen Ash work before, Arthur?”

A little flash of indignation makes Ash’s hair stand on end. He doesn’t like where this is going.

“Nope.” The bastard sounds almost gleeful, like he’s about to get a forbidden treat.  

“How about it, Ashy?” Dino rolls his wrist to palm at Ash through his pants even more firmly. “I might just forgive you if you roll over and beg like the good little puppy that I know you are.” The hand pulls back and Dino steps away from Ash at last, clearing a path between the two younger boys. “Arthur.” He glances over his shoulder to address him. “You’re in charge here. I have some other, more important things to attend to this evening. If Ash can’t behave for you then I’ll leave things to your discretion. But don’t kill him. For now, I just want you to teach him a lesson. Understand? ”

The vicious gleam in his eyes is answer enough, but he vocalizes his agreement anyway--cocky, cruel, “Oh yeah, I hear you loud and clear, boss. I’ll break your bitch for you. Not to worry.” Dino gives a slight nod and walks off, and when the heavy door slams shut behind him the two boys are left alone.

Arthur saunters back over to Ash at once. “You’re all mine now, Ash,” he chuckles threateningly. “You wanna suck my dick like a good slut or should I have my fun with that innocent little squinty-eyed friend of yours instead?”

Ash’s mouth falls open for a split second--stunned at the crass mention of Eiji-- but he recovers as quickly as he can manage. “Well, if you want me to do that you’re gonna either have to get me out of these chains or grow about 3 feet.”

“Ha ha, very funny. As usual you have a smart mouth. Unfortunately for you, though, I was just kidding. I know better than to free you. Besides, I’d rather hear you beg than get any where near that filthy mouth of yours. Who knows what kind of diseases you’ve picked up along the way.”

Ash ignores the snide comment and bats his eyelashes as seductively as he can manage in his current state--hoping to change Arthur’s mind somehow. Getting fucked over is easy enough. He’d much rather face that than true torture, or worse: having Arthur follow through on his threat of bringing Eiji back into things. “Are you sure?” he teases. “I’d probably be the best you’ve ever had.”

For perhaps the first time ever, Ash’s charms have no effect. Chalk it up to his understandably distracted state or to Arthur’s unadulterated hate for him, but the taller boy simply shrugs. “Not interested. I’d much rather break the Jap in a little bit.”

Seeing that his weak attempts are failing, Ash becomes deadly serious. “Stop fucking around, Arthur. This is between us.”

He laughs and starts to walk away, waving his hand dismissively at Ash as he goes. “Hang tight, princess. I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Arthur!” Ash calls after him, getting visibly upset again. He jerks forward as far as his chains will allow, a heavy jangle reverberating up his arms and toward the ceiling when they catch and pull at his shoulders painfully. “Don’t--!” But a swell of fear in his chest chokes out the rest of his angry plea and Arthur vanishes, the door clanging shut behind him.  

 

__

__


	3. Chapter 3

He is still sitting on the edge of the bed, trembling with a mixture of reverberating horror, disbelief, anger, pain, and lung-crushing sorrow when the bedroom door is suddenly flung open again. A burst of light explodes into the room and Eiji has to cover his eyes for a second. He hears the door bang against the wall and then a familiarly cruel voice, ordering,

“Come on, let’s go.”

He peels his forearm away from his face and squints up at Arthur. _What now?_

When Eiji doesn’t rise from the bed quickly enough, Arthur lurches forward and grabs him by the arm, yanking up from the edge of the mattress with a jolt. “Ow! Let go--” Eiji complains. Arthur’s hand is gripping onto one of the knife wounds on his arm and it stings badly. He tries to pull away but Arthur is much stronger than him and he drags the Japanese boy out of the room and down the hallway in seconds.

Everything is a blur as he stumbles down the long, carpeted hall, dragged along by the vice-grip on his arm. Before he can truly get his bearings, he is slung through a set of doors and dumped onto the floor. When he looks up, he finds himself back at Ash’s feet.

This time the blonde doesn’t even address him. He is glowering at Arthur instead.

What was happening here? Clearly something had been said before Eiji arrived--he had been literally thrown into the middle of some argument--that much was obvious. But _what_ , was the question. What could make Ash more livid than he was the last time Eiji saw him? What could make him look even more desperate than having to shoot his best friend?

“Ta da~” Arthur sing songs from above Eiji’s crumpled form. His loud vocalization shocks Eiji back into reality but only adds to his confusion. “Gentlemen, I present to you tonight’s main course. A Japanese delicacy for your enjoyment.”

Eiji wrenches his neck around to make sense of things. Gentlemen, footfall, Ash’s near palpable rage--sure enough, when he turns his head, he finds half a dozen of Golzine’s men closing in on him from behind.

“Anyone who lays a finger on him is _fucking_ dead,” Ash hisses. He sounds more terrifying than ever but no one seems to be listening. They keep coming closer. “Arthur--” Ash warns, seeing that he is being ignored, but then hands are falling on Eiji and yanking him up. Hands on his arms, on his neck, rough hands gripping at his shirt and even looping into his belt on his hip for more leverage.

“Tie him up,” Arthur encourages the hands. He fold his arms in approval and steps back near Ash to watch while Eiji struggles.

“Let go of me!” Eiji cries, but there are far too many hands on him and he’s weak from his fight with Shorter. He’s still bleeding from several shallow cuts all over his body. He doesn’t have a chance.

They wrench his arms every which way as they wrestle him out of his torn shirt, and when he won’t stop struggling someone punches him in the gut, doubling him over with the force. All of the breath leaves his body. Helpless, Eiji can do nothing but stiffen against the hands that move him around and bind him. By the time he’s able to breathe again, Eiji’s hands and arms have been tied with rope behind his back. It’s an awkward position for his shoulders and they start aching immediately.

Just as soon as the hands fell on him, they go away.

Eiji looks up in surprise, his chest still heaving from the blow. All of a sudden he feels extremely uncomfortable. He’s on his knees with his arms tightly bound behind his back. The coarse rope is biting into the flesh of his upper arms where it loops around and squeezes his muscles. He’s naked from the waist up and everyone is staring at him.

Everyone except Ash.

He’s still glowering at Arthur and aside from the metered rise and fall of his agitated breath through his open shirt, the lynx is completely still.

 _He’s mad at me,_ Eiji realizes with a pang. Of course he would be. Because of his concern for Eiji, Ash ended up having to kill his own best friend. _He can’t even look at me. He probably hates me now._ No doubt, Ash regrets coming to save him. He’s not going to be putting himself out there to bother with Eiji’s incompetence anymore.

Eiji’s gaze falls to his knees.

Suddenly, Arthur says, “Now Ash, I’m getting excited just looking at him but I’ll give you a minute to make a pitch if you feel up to it.”

 _A pitch?_ Eiji crinkles his brow at the floor, uncomprehending.

Ash is quiet for what feels like a long time. In the silence, one of the guards clears his throat.

Eventually, Ash grits out through his teeth, “You want me to beg more, you sick fuck? How about this: Don’t do it and I won’t make you eat your own dick as your last meal. And that goes for all of you. How’s that for a pitch?” His blue-green eyes dart around at all of the guards, his threat clear.

But Arthur just chuckles. “No wonder Papa is sick of your attitude. You’re so arrogant you could almost make people forget that you’re a filthy mafia whore.”

Ash gets quiet again, his glare somehow doubling in intensity as Arthur goes on, saying,

“Is that what happened here?” He waves his hand back and forth between Ash and Eiji on the floor. “You somehow got this preppy foreigner to overlook your _disgusting_  profession? Or did he just never hear about it?”

Arthur looks at Eiji but Ash still won’t. His head is turned slightly to the side and Eiji can see how tense his jaw has become at Arthur’s words. “Did he tell you how many people he’s fucked?” Arthur asks, his taunts directed at Eiji, now. “Strangers. Old men. Murderers. Anyone, really.” His voice sounds amused and it pisses Eiji off more than anything else they’ve done to him so far. “Literally thousands of people. There’s nothing he hasn’t done, this one.” He jabs his thumb back in Ash’s direction and smirks. “Can you even imagine what a day at work must be like for a slut like him?”

“Shut up, Arthur,” Ash hisses through his teeth.

“I’m sure he never told you about all of that,” Arthur goes on. “For some reason, the lynx is trying to be someone else with you. Trying to pretend that he’s a normal person with normal friends. But personally, I think it’s important for friends to really understand each other, don’t you, Eiji?”

Arthur pauses in his cruel speech to give Eiji a chance to reply, but the Japanese boy has so much indignation and dread filling up the space in his chest that there is no room left for speech. Somehow Arthur seems even more satisfied by that. He slowly comes to stand in front of Eiji and crouches down to meet his gaze.

“Yeah, it’s real important for you two to understand each other if this nonsense is going to continue. So how’s about we give you a little taste of Ash’s medicine, hm? See if we can’t shed some light on our subject.”

The growing sick feeling inside of Eiji’s midsection suddenly triples in size. His eyes pop up past Arthur to look at Ash, and this time he finds the blonde staring back at him--pure panic in his blue orbs.


	4. Chapter 4

**ASH**

 

_No, no…no no no--fuck, please! no, not this--_

 

Eiji is trussed up on the cellar floor just a few yards in front of Ash, but he can’t do anything to help him. His black hair is flip flopping around this way and that as he swivels his head around again and again, looking between the men who are coming too close. His brown eyes are frightened and confused, like he honestly doesn’t understand what is about to happen to him.

Ash knows, though.

Intimately, deeply--cutting straight through to the core of his being--Ash knows all too well what they’ll do Eiji. They’re going to hurt him in every way, on every level, and they’re going to enjoy it. They’ll make him feel small and useless. They’ll take away his voice.

They’re going to change the way he sees himself. They’re going to change the way he looks at other people.

They’re going to change the way he looks at Ash.

 

“Does this kid even speak English?” one of the goons asks. He flicks his hand at Eiji’s head, his fingers skimming over his hair dismissively.

“Who cares?” Arthur shrugs. “Use fucking hand motions or something. I’m sure he can take direction.”

A flicker of anger bleeds into Eiji’s scared expression. “I speak English. You’ve heard me speak English,” he grits out through his teeth. With his jaws knit so tightly together, Ash could almost miss the way that Eiji’s voice is quivering. But he knows that feeling all too well.

The big goon on Eiji’s left is shamelessly rubbing his crotch through the front of his pants. _He’s one of those people,_ Ash thinks, narrowing his eyes at him. _Fucking carrion. Chomping at the bit to devour someone._ Eiji has probably never known people like that before.

“Say hello, princess,” the man says. He grabs Eiji by the hair on the top of his head and pulls him up to level with his fly. When his face gets pressed against the goon’s ever-growing bulge, Eiji starts squirming. His shoulders tense and pull as he strains against the ropes that hold his arms firm and straight behind his body.

“Ow…let--go!” Eiji complains, giving a strong jerk of his neck. Still, the hand in his hair keeps him where he is.

“Feisty little bitch, huh?” Arthur sounds amused. He shakes his head in mock disapproval. “I always heard the Japs were respectful and shit.” The men chuckle at that. When the big goon holding Eiji unzips his fly and works his cock out of his pants, Eiji closes his eyes.

 _Shut down, Eiji,_  Ash wants to tell him. _Shut your brain off and turn your ears off and stop fighting. Just let them do what they’re going to do because you can’t stop them and you’ll break less if you don’t pay attention._

It took Ash a long time to learn that lesson and it’s something that could really help Eiji get through this, but he can’t make his mouth open right now. He can’t talk, he can’t give fucking _advice_ about how to get raped. Not with Arthur and all of these vultures standing around ready to pick his bones clean.

“Open up,” the goon orders, tapping his cock against Eiji’s mouth. Eiji has stopped squirming for the moment and is completely frozen with his eyes shut--like maybe the goon and his dick with just vanish.

_Thwump!_

The punch is solid and it sends Eiji toppling over onto his right shoulder and hip. His eyes pop open just before his cheek hits the floor. “You open your mouth when I tell you to--useless, fucking--” His big hand slaps back on the top of Eiji’s head and drags him up to his knees again. “Open up and suck it, squinty.” A second man crouches behind Eiji and grabs his upper arms, holding him firmly in place while the big goon starts prying his jaws apart. His thick fingers are pressing bruises into Eiji’s cheeks from the outside but the boy won’t give in just yet.

Ash remembers. He used to fight it when he was young, but they were always bigger than him and stronger than him and it always ended the same way. He would get the shit beat out of him and then he’d get fucked just the same, so he had learned to calculate his odds and fold when he knew he didn’t have a chance.

Eiji doesn’t have a chance here and Ash can’t help him. _Stop fighting it. I don’t wanna see you get beat up first._ But he doesn’t say anything because how is he supposed to tell another man to roll over and take it without sounding like a filthy slut?

 

_Crack!_

Eiji yelps at the stinging force of the backhand and the goons take advantage of his pain. Half a dozen fingers dig inside of his mouth to stretch his jaws apart. The fat boner is soon to follow, sliding heavy over Eiji’s recoiling tongue. Then the muzzle of a gun is pressed against the back of his head, just above the neck. “Don’t bite,” the man behind him threatens through a grin. “Be a good boy and give everyone a turn.” He cocks the gun right against Eiji’s skull, his threat clear.

Bested for the moment, Eiji’s shoulders stiffen and still, a mask of disgust and embarrassment covering his face as the goon starts fucking his lax mouth in earnest. His head is held still by the fist in his hair and the gun on the back of his skull. It seems like all he can do is kneel there and take it for the moment.

But pretty soon he starts gagging.

It’s not his fault, the man is being an asshole on purpose--jabbing the fat head of his dick down Eiji’s throat without a thought for his comfort or his breathing--and when he finally pulls out for a second, Eiji is spitting up on his shoes.

It takes all of Ash’s effort to stand there and not try to lunge across the room. His heart is hammering away in his chest, infuriated, but he does everything he can to keep from falling apart in front of everyone again. That’s what they really want, after all. That’s why Arthur is having them do this. That’s why this asshole is stabbing a hole in Eiji’s throat--just for _Ash_.

“You fucking suck at this,” the man with the gun heckles, jabbing the gun even harder against the back of Eiji’s head. “Heh…suck,” he chuckles at his own pun.

“Yeah, maybe try actually sucking. He’s like a fucking statue,” the goon with his dick out complains. He gives Eiji’s face another slap and then wrenches his neck back into a usable position. “Open.”

This time Eiji opens his quivering lips on his own but he looks miserable.

“That’s a good boy,” the goon laughs. Then he feeds himself back down Eiji’s throat, ignoring the resistance of the boy’s mouth and throat entirely.

Eiji’s cheeks flame with embarrassment as he fights the urge to gag over and over again. He does his best--gasping for breath whenever he can--but all Ash notices is that his eyes are pinched closed again.

“Use your tongue, goddammit.”

Whether he tries or not, the goon can’t tell, but either way Eiji is puking again in less than two minutes. “Ughhhhh god. Useless,” the man complains halfheartedly. He takes a step backward and goes to stroking himself instead, but the wicked grin on his face betrays that this was precisely his goal.

 _Eiji…_ Ash knows exactly how Eiji is feeling right now and he would give anything to be in his place. At least Ash has been through it often enough to have an easier time. He bites his bottom lip and finds that he was holding his breath. Only when Eiji gasps in a shaky, wet inhalation does Ash finally find his lungs again.

“Arthur, enough--”

“Maybe you should give him some tips, Ash,” Arthur interrupts without even looking at him. His eyes are too busy devouring Eiji’s trembling form. “Tell him how to make it hurt less or something. Not all of us want--fucking--sushi puke all over us.”

Ash goes white. He _could_  help him. He probably could coach him through this verbally and save him a lot of physical pain--if he could listen and take direction, that is. But that…

That would have to be the end of things between them. If they even live through this, Ash would never be able to face Eiji again if he did something as shameful as coaching him through a gang rape. That would have to be the end of it.

And he just _can’t_ do it.

 

“Ahhh! Owww, ow--stop!” They’re wrenching Eiji around again, pulling his hair and making him cringe into himself.

 _They haven’t even taken his pants off yet,_ Ash thinks, and he hates himself for thinking it. He’s biting the inside of his cheek and trying not to cry, big bright eyes swimming with tears that he blinks away as soon as they form. _Fuck--_ If only he could stop this now, before it goes any further.

But he can’t do anything. He can’t even make himself speak.

“Turn him around. My turn,” says the man with the gun. They spin Eiji around on his knees and yank his head up to face the second man. “Open.”

Eiji’s lips quirk into a sad frown and then part slightly.

“I said open!”

The man whips his arm back and then sends it slamming down, the pistol cutting across Eiji’s face with a sickening _CRACK!_

“Fuck, stop it!!” Ash shouts.

Eiji’s shoulders hunch up to try and protect his hurt face as he hangs his head. “Ohhh…my god. Uhhh…” Ash can hear how hurt and scared Eiji is, he doesn’t need to see. But somehow he can’t look away. A few seconds later a trio of red droplets fall to the ground beneath Eiji’s face.   

“Now…you listen up, slut.”

Eiji visibly cringes at the word. _They should be saying that to me, not him,_ Ash thinks. He’s heard it a billion times--slut, whore--and he deserves it. He _is_ those things. But not Eiji!

“Your buddy won’t help you so let me give you a little advice.” The man with the gun snags Eiji by the chin and rips his face up. “Hurl on me and I’ll blow your fucking brains out. Swallow that shit. And anything else I give you.”

The welted bruise on Eiji’s cheekbone is darkening and swelling by the second, not to mention the dark red cut left behind by the gun. Ash feels like he might be the one to throw up instead.

“Now, open your mouth properly like a real whore.”

Eiji is looking down the bridge of his own nose, his breathing ragged from the pain, but he does as he’s told, opening his mouth wide enough for the man to easily slide the gun inside.

“No---fucking stop this!” Ash cries angrily. He turns his frantic gaze on Arthur because he can’t watch this! He can’t handle the way Eiji’s bare chest heaves with renewed fear as they jam a loaded gun down his throat. This is too much!

“Ghaaruhugh--” Eiji gargles helplessly around the hard muzzle, his pained and frightened whine coming out almost comical. The jarring sound of soft, wet, inner flesh being jabbed with something hard fills the room. The goons are silent for once--letting Eiji hear it, making him turn red with embarrassment.

 

“Yeahhh there you go, take it,” the man jeers after awhile. Eiji’s eyes are screwed shut again and Ash can imagine how much pain he’s in. Ash’s chest is constricting painfully at the mere thought of what Eiji is feeling at the moment. That gun is likely tearing at his throat…cutting him open… “Good job, don’t fucking puke. Yes.”

He’s obviously trying very hard to follow these directions, and for good reason. That gun is loaded and cocked. He could be killed at literally any second. Ash is shaking all over at the thought; he can’t help it anymore. When Eiji whines again, true pain written all over his twisted expression, Ash cracks, “Arthur, please! Let him go! That’s enough!”

Arthur laughs coldly. “Alright, alright,” he waves at the goon with the gun. “Give him a break. We need him alive if everyone’s going to get a turn, eh?”

Ash exhales shakily, whipping his head back around to see the man reluctantly draw the gun out of Eiji’s mouth. The Japanese boy sputters and hangs his head. A moment later his lips are slick with blood. _Oh, Eiji…_

Ash twists his wrists against the chains that hold him. They’re impossible. He’s trapped. He can’t do anything but beg, and even that is useless. It’s all just a game to Arthur and Ash can’t do anything but watch.

He’s never felt so worthless in all of his life.

__

 


	5. Chapter 5

**EIJI**

__

_CRACK!_

 

“Ohhhh…my god.” Eiji’s mouth hangs open at an odd angle, frozen. “Uhhh…” He’s too stunned by the blow to cry out but the pain starts building all at once, getting hard and numb. He vaguely hears Ash shout something from his left before he feels a hot smear of blood sliding down his face. A second later, deep red drops starts appearing on the floor underneath him.

“Now…you listen up, slut.”

Eiji ducks his head down a little further, stung. He’s heard that word about a thousand times since coming to New York, but it’s entirely different now--directed at him while he’s on his knees and bloodied up next to a small puddle of his own puke--half naked and surrounded by people who want to use him to jerk off.

“Your buddy won’t help you so let me give you a little advice,” says the man with the gun as he snags Eiji by the chin forces his head up. The boy can’t bring himself to raise his eyes,though. He stares blankly down the bridge of his own nose toward the red droplets on the floor as the bigger man goes on, “Hurl on me and I’ll blow your fucking brains out. Swallow that shit. And anything else I give you. Now, open your mouth properly like a real whore.”

He thinks that he should fight more--struggle a little more even though he’s obviously beaten--because _Ash_  is watching this.

Ash: who has been through this a million and one times and is still the toughest, most self-assured person that Eiji has ever met. Ash: who would fight off a twenty man army by himself. Ash: who just had to murder his own best friend because he was trying to save Eiji’s miserable life.

The last thing Eiji wants to do is prove once again just how weak he actually is compared to Ash. How useless he is--

But--

He can’t feel about a forth of his face and his arms are immobile. He’d better go along with this if he doesn’t want to get killed. Hopefully Ash would rather see him get molested than murdered.

So he dutifully opens his mouth wide to let another disgusting cock enter, only this time it’s not flesh, it’s a _gun_  and the goon shoves it straight back into his tonsils without hesitation. Eiji’s eyes pop open in alarm as the hard length of the pistol is crammed further into his mouth, scraping against his back molars and splitting his jaws apart. It _hurts_  and he cries out, shocked, but the noise comes out pathetically garbled.

Ash is shouting something. He sounds horrified and furious all at the same time, but Eiji can’t make out the words. The terrifying feeling of the gun tearing at his inner throat is the only thing occupying his attention right now.

“Yeahhh, there you go. Take it,” the man jeers down at him. “And don’t fucking puke. Yes.”

_Oh my god, oh god please don’t let him--shit! I don’t wanna die. Don’t let me die! Not in front of Ash._

The fact that the gun is loaded is not even the main thing scaring him. The metal muzzle is tearing at his throat! He can feel it scraping over the soft inner flesh--unflinching, unyielding material brutally ravaging over the delicate tissues and drawing blood with nearly every thrust.

He tries hard to keep it together, but a particularly hard jab makes him _whine_  in pure agony.

“Arthur, please! Let him go! That’s enough!” Ash yells. He sounds desperate, now.

“Alright, alright. Give him a break. We need him alive if everyone’s going to get a turn, eh?”

A second later the gun is ripped out of Eiji’s mouth. He doubles over and sputters--the lingering pain and blood throbbing upward in his throat and manifesting in quivering lips and stunned silence. His eyes widen and stare at the ground, terrified.

These people are clearly not kidding around. They will kill him when and if they feel like it.

“Alright, get him up,” Arthur says, stepping forward and away from Ash’s side at last. “I wanna fuck him on the frame.”

“Don’t you _fucking_ dare Arthur, don’t touch him, I swear to god--” Ash is saying, rambling even. Eiji raises his head and dares a glance at the blonde boy. Sure enough, he looks nearly frantic. He jerks forward against the chains that hold him to the support beams of the basement and goes on, voice steadily rising to a shout. “This is not what Golzine meant. You need to deal with _me_!”

Arthur ignores him once again. “Drag that frame over here,” he directs one of the goons. Eiji tears his eyes from Ash and swivels them wearily onto the men, following the new motions. The big goon his making his way across the basement space to the corner where a what looks like a gridded metal bed frame is propped up in waiting. The man grabs it and starts dragging it back into their midst, letting the metal scrape menacingly across the hard floor. “We got any more rope?”

A chill washes over Eiji’s bare skin all at once, raising goosebumps up and down his arms. _They’re going to tie me down on that thing?!_ It looks hard and cold--thin lines of metal and wire ready to cut him up and down and every which way. As it draws closer--loud shrieks of metal on concrete making him cringe as it is dragged nearer--he can make out rust freckling the bare metal.

“Yup. Right here.”

The frame is tossed down in front of Eiji. It clangs on the hard ground and makes him flinch.

“What do you think, Ashy? Face down sound good to you?” Arthur asks casually. Ash’s eyes are daggers but he doesn’t reply-- _can’t,_ maybe--his mouth is open slightly but nothing comes out. Arthur shoots him a sideways glance and grins, liking what he sees. “Sounds good? Or you wanna see his face when I pop his cherry?”

Eiji’s eyes flutter shut, mortified.

“No.”

“No? So face down, right?” Arthur nods, feigning seriousness. “Yeah, I don’t wanna look at his squishy fucking face either.” He waves a hand at the pair of goons and they grab Eiji and start dragging him toward the bed frame on his knees.

“No! I--” Ash stammers, coming undone as Eiji is tossed face first onto the metal grid. The Japanese boy screws his eyes shut even tighter and grits his teeth just a millisecond before his face bounces off of it. Then they’re grabbing at his pant legs--pulling his trousers down--fingers digging inside of the waistband of his underpants--and he tries to squirm away from the touch but his arms are still bound tightly behind him and the frame beneath him hurts _everything_ with every little movement--

Above him, he can hear Ash starting to beg in earnest. “Don’t do this--fuck! Arthur this is not what you’re supposed to be doing, you…”

He doesn’t want to hear Ash begging--not for anything!--and especially not for him. Ash is impossibly strong. He’s unbreakable! It’s…awful.

“You’re supposed to punish _me_!” Ash argues. His voice is becoming strained and tight, like he is almost about to cry. Someone is grabbing Eiji’s bare ankle and twisting a length of rope around it. A heavy hand is pressing down on his lower leg--smearing it into the metal coil beneath so he can’t even attempt to struggle. “Don’t use that thing, Arthur, come on! Please, I’ll do anything, just don’t-- _Don’t_  use that thing. Please!”

“Why? I like it,” Arthur counters. “It makes ‘em get all nice and stiff and tight. Remember?”

Eiji turns his face sideways just enough to peel one eye open without scratching it on the bars. He finds Ash positively glowering at the other blonde. The lynx takes a heavy breath and re-centers himself. _Don’t, Ash. Just leave it alone,_ Eiji thinks miserably. He can tell that the boy is about to try another bit in order to save him like he always does, but it’s not going to work.

“Don’t act like you’ve ever used that before, asshole,” Ash says.

Arthur just smirks and shrugs. “First time with a first timer, then. Perfect.”

“If you’re into fucking corpses, maybe. Otherwise you’re going to wish you never bothered with that thing.”

 _Corpses?_  Eiji swallows thickly. The thin metal strips and springs underneath his bare body are already hurting him and he’s not even moving, but… _ _corpses__? Ash is exaggerating, right?

Unfortunately, Arthur seems to see through this weak attempt, too. “And what? You want me to take you down so that you two can swap places? Is that it? Because he's so soft and you’re so good at taking cock, right?” Ash narrows his eyes at him but says nothing. “Well, as I already told you, I’m not even the slightest bit into fucking your used hole. I don’t want to get a disease. But thanks for reminding everyone once again what a whore you are.”

Ash scowls. His eyes dip off to the left, beaten, and as they fall they cross paths with Eiji’s gaze. When their eyes meet for just a split second, Eiji feels a pang in his gut so hard that he has to close his eyes again.

Once again, he has put Ash in a position where he has no choice but to watch and suffer and hurt himself because of it. Ash should never have come here. He should never have bothered trying to save Eiji! It’s all his fault, he realizes as a calloused hand grabs his other ankle and pulls it out farther, spreading his legs apart and scraping his pale skin up before well and truly tying him down for their use.    

He keeps his eyes closed and tries not to whimper out loud. _I’m so sorry, Ash._


	6. Chapter 6

**ASH**

****

As soon as that bed frame enters the picture, Ash nearly loses it. He grips the chains above his wrists until his knuckles turn white. It’s all he can not to openly freak out in front of everyone.

Not. That.

How the _hell_ does Arthur know about that?!

 

__“_ Little shit bit me again.” _

_“So bite him back,” the other one chuckled, folding his arms over his sunken chest and grinning down at Ash with crooked yellow teeth. A predator. “He’ll settle down eventually.”_

_Settle down? He was eleven years old, he had just taken an adult’s dick up the ass, and it hurt like hell. How was he supposed to settle down when they were trying to hurt him like that again? He would squirm and struggle and fight, he would bite and scratch, he would do whatever he had to do if it meant stopping that from happening to him again._

_But then the fat one came back into the room and he was less patient with Ash’s resistance than the others_

_“Get me some fucking rope for this kid.”_

_He shoved Ash off of the bed and on to the ground in a clump and then he stripped the bed in a wild fury. The next thing Ash knew, he was yanked back up by a fist in his hair and smashed face down onto the bare metal bed frame._

_“This’ll teach him,” the fat one grunted, satisfied once Ash was bound hand and foot. When he tried to struggle, the metal cut straight into his knees, hips, and collarbone._

_“Ahhh!” he squeaked, shocked. He couldn’t move without hurting himself. If he couldn’t fight, what he supposed to do? The boy stared wide eyed down at the floor through the springs. For perhaps the first time, he was completely helpless and terrified._

_Above him, the man was shedding his clothes and arranging them on either side of Ash’s bare body as padding for his own knees._

_And then he got on top of the boy._

__

Ash can’t remember much after that. It was all a blur of agony. All he remembers is hearing himself screaming and crying--begging for him to stop, just stop, just _please_  stop!--and when the man was finally done he remembers that he couldn’t move and there was piss and blood on floor underneath the frame although there was no way to know exactly where the blood had come from because he was hurt _everywhere_.

He has to try. “Don’t use that thing, Arthur, come on! Please, I’ll do anything, just don’t-- _Don’t_  use that thing. Please!” He can’t watch Eiji get hurt like that, it would destroy him.

Maybe he could still talk his way out of this. Maybe he could manipulate Arthur into letting him take Eiji’s place.

Arthur is talking at him, mocking him--Ash is only half listening. He takes a deep breath and tries to compose himself enough to make a pitch. It’s especially hard because he doesn’t want to do this. Offering to lay down on that god forsaken frame and go through that again--willingly--in front of all of these assholes is making his heart chug sickeningly with dread.

But letting Eiji take this punishment is not an option. It’s meant for _him_.

“Don’t act like you’ve ever used that thing before, asshole,” he tries. It sounds transparent even to his own ears. _Shit _.__  Hopefully Arthur is too lost in his vendetta to notice. Whether he knows about Ash’s previous experience or not, it’s rather common practice in Golzine’s operation to break feisty whores on similarly mundane torture devices.

“First time with a first timer then. Perfect,” Arthur quips back.

“If you’re into fucking corpses maybe. Otherwise you’re gonna wish you never bothered with that thing.” Maybe corpses is a little dramatic. Ash survived it and he was just a kid.

But he sure wished he was dead afterward.

“And what? You want me to take you down so that you two can swap places? Is that it? Because he's so soft and you’re so good at taking cock, right?”

 _Shit._  It’s not working. Ash narrows his eyes, trying to hide the desperate tears that are welling up too fast, now.

“Well, as I already told you, I’m not even the slightest bit into fucking your used hole. I don’t want to get a disease. But thanks for reminding everyone once again what a whore you are.”

 _God…fuck._ It’s not like he’s never been talked down to this much before, but coming from Arthur and in front of Eiji? Ash turns a little pink and looks away, humiliated. When his gaze accidentally crosses Eiji’s as it falls, the Japanese boy actually closes his eyes rather than look at him. .

Ash’s lungs turn to led.

 

 

 

**EIJI**

 

Eiji’s heart is pounding. He can’t make himself calm down. He’s completely naked, tied to an ancient bed frame, and the vultures are circling. Worst of all, Ash seems utterly defeated, which must mean that Eiji’s situation is beyond hopeless.

He’s going to get raped and there’s nothing he can do about it.

“Ash,” he says weakly, eyes still closed. He wants to tell Ash that he’s sorry. He wants advice or comfort or something. He just wants to talk to him because he’s terrified and embarrassed and it’s awful being naked and tied up like this and being verbally ignored for so long by his best friend.

Ash hasn’t said one word to him since he was dragged in here.

“Ash--” he tries again, his jaw scraping against a rusty spring, but the jarring of Arthur’s foot pressing on the frame cuts him off.

“Save your voice, slut. You’re gonna be screaming soon enough.”

Eiji’s fear ratchets up to terror as Arthur peels off his jacket and trousers and tosses them down on the springs beside Eiji’s spread thighs. He hops on the frame a second later and Eiji very quickly comes to understand that this is going to be brutal. Every jostle of Arthur’s body rubs Eiji’s bare skin into the metal, and when the bigger boy grabs Eiji by the shoulders and shoves him down harder to start lining things up, the springs and wires draw blood.

“Ash!” Eiji gasps, unthinking. It’s just pain and fear. He can’t think he’s so scared. Arthur’s hard-on is rubbing on the back of his thigh, brushing up toward his bum.

“Who wants second?” Arthur chuckles. He is pressing the tip of his cock against Eiji’s unprepared hole--one hand on the boy’s lower back now to keep him still while he forces his way inside.

“Oh my god--Ash!” The tip of a spring is sticking into the soft spot under his hip bone.

“Ok--you’re gonna be okay, Eiji. It’s gonna be okay,” Ash stammers.

But it doesn’t feel that way. Arthur’s cock isn’t going in, so he hacks up a glob of frothy spit and uses the wetness to cram a pair of fingers into Eiji’s body instead. “Ahhhhh oh---uhhh-huh ahhhh!” Eiji groans. The burning sensation starts where Arthur’s fingers have entered him but it grows and spreads from there--up into his guts, into his stomach. He feels like puking again.

“There we go,” Arthur mutters to himself, yanking his fingers out and lining his cock up with Eiji’s reddened hole. “Last chance, Ash. Wanna give him some advice before I break his ass in?”

Eiji almost squeals as a wave of panic washes over him. He’s stiff all over--wide eyes staring through the metal strips at the red droplets that have already fallen from the cut on his face.

Why? Why is this happening to him? Why would anyone ever do something like this?

“Just…fuck.” Ash’s voice cracks slightly, “Just try to relax a little bit.”

“Yes baby, listen to your whore friend,” Arthur coos, “Just relax and enjoy it. Let us fuck you. You’ll be a well-trained slut like Ash in no time.”  

“N-no, don’t,” Eiji stammers just before Arthur presses the head of his cock inside.

“Oooo yeah. You are verryyyy tight,” Arthur sighs lustily. “Let me fix that for you.”

Eiji’s mouth had fallen open in shock at the awfulness of the stretch, but when Arthur thrusts his hips forward with some force, Eiji can’t contain the pained shout that tears out of him.

It burns so badly--this tearing, pinching, burning stretch that makes him queasy from head to toe. When Arthur pushes down on his hips and pulls out again, the fatter head of his cock scrapes over his insides in the most disgusting way imaginable. He’s never felt anything so horrible in his entire life. He’d rather go back to choking on their dicks than _this_.

“Feels good, boys,” Arthur announces. He holds Eiji down even harder and shoves back inside--all the way this time--and Eiji chokes on his strangled cry.

The angle is all wrong.

It hurts so much worse than he thought it would. How in the world does Ash manage to do this?!

Arthur riffles his hips back and forth a few times. Eiji’s cries of pain don’t seem to bother him at all--if anything they’re turning him on more and more. And when he pulls out all the way once again, scraping Eiji’s body back over the sharp wires as he does so, he sees something that pleases him. “Ooooo-hoo yikes. That hurts?”

Hurts?

“Jesus--fuck, Arthur, stop it!!” Ash yells.

 _ _Hurts__  is the biggest understatement of all time. It’s unreal. The entire front of his body is peeling and bleeding, rubbing raw over the metal wires. And what’s worse, the feeling in his ass is almost indescribable.

“Arthur! You’re hurting him, fucking _stop_!”

Ash is screaming? Why? _If you can do this, I can do it, too _,__ Eiji thinks, closing his eyes. But it's a hollow reassurance. His vision is growing dark and spotty, anyway.

“Damn.” Arthur says, sounding…regretful? He shoves back inside, anyway. “Well, shit boys, the lynx was right. I dunno why I thought he wouldn’t be. He is a professional, after all.”

 _What?_ The intrusion is in Eiji’s ass has stilled for a moment. Was Arthur done already? Eiji thinks he would’ve felt it if the man had cum inside of him, but maybe he’s just naive. Then again, he can’t feel too much anymore. He’s just a mess of unidentifiable pain. Even with his eyes closed he can feel his head swimming dangerously.

“You still with us, slut?” Arthur asks. He smacks the back of Eiji’s skull. When his head snaps to the side with the force of the blow, one of the spring coils hooks into his open mouth. “You got two and a half more. Good to go?”  

Ash is shouting at them from above but it’s all just noise to Eiji. There is a ringing deep in his ears. His eyes are closed but his brain feels like it’s doing cartwheels. “Uhhhh--ah, ohh--” The spring is stuck into the inside of his cheek. All of a sudden, he feels Arthur grab his butt cheeks and spreads them wide, slowly pulling his length out of Eiji once again. Eiji whines, tortured as inch by inch the hard rod scrapes over the wicked tear. When the head pops out of his hole, he feels a rush of blood come running out and down his thigh.


	7. Chapter 7

**ASH**

 

It’s all wrong right away.

They’re not even trying to get off, Ash realizes. They’re just trying to fuck Eiji up in the most degrading way imaginable.

The Japanese boy could not be any less prepared for Arthur’s cock. His entire body is clenched like a fist thanks to his fear and the pain of that hellish frame, not to mention that he’s a true virgin with no idea how to relax into it. And with his arms tied up behind his back, he’s in an impossible position where he can’t even try to protect his face from getting scraped up every time Arthur rocks into him.

And Ash can’t do _anything_ but watch and agonize over whether or not he should be watching.

Ash knows that Eiji has been brave. The boy has tried to hold himself together all this time, but the feeling of the metal beneath him and the cock inside of him and the strangers around him must finally be too much, because he’s starting to scream in earnest now.

Inside, Ash is screaming too. He would do anything to make this stop--

It’s when Arthur pulls out--his cock glimmering with dark red blood from Eiji’s insides--that Ash falls apart. “Jesus--fuck, Arthur _stop_ it!” he cries, jerking madly at his chains because blood like that means _tears_. Ash knows how painful that is--how long that takes to heal all the way--how _dangerous_  that is--

“Oooo-hoo yikes. That hurts?” Arthur chuckles at the sight and shakes his head, “Damn. Well shit boys, I guess the lynx was right.” His fingers dig back into the flesh of Eiji’s hips and he forces himself back inside despite the blood. “I dunno why I thought he wouldn’t be. He is a professional, after all.”  

“Arthur! Arthur,” Ash cries madly, straining with his full weight against the chains even though he knows it’s useless. He couldn’t get out of them to save Shorter and he can’t protect Eiji, either. “Arthur! You’re hurting him, fucking _stop!_ ” he pleads. Maybe Arthur doesn’t know that he could kill Eiji by accident. Arthur’s probably never been in the other position; he must not know how dangerous this is! Ash’s mind is reeling and he’s yelling frantically, a torrent of pleas just pouring out of him.

“Well…got him wet at least,” one of the other men chuckles, looking on from where he stands a few yards away. The blood has become obvious now--glistening over both of their thighs. “That makes an easier go of it.”

Ash didn’t think that Eiji was capable of listening any more, but apparently he heard it because he snarls, “Oh fuck you.” His voice is beyond strained but at least he’s still somewhat coherent. The spring that’s hooked in his mouth makes the words come out strange.

“Oh don’t you worry, sweetheart, I’m waiting my turn,” he retorts with a sneer.

“No--enough!” Ash growls.

“Nah, he hasn’t had enough yet. He’s still got a mouth on him,” Arthur argues, his rhythmic thrusting continuing at a steady pace through it all. He leans forward over Eiji and grabs the back of his neck. “If you wanna talk, at least say something charming. Tell me how good it feels.”

He snaps his hips especially hard and Eiji yelps.

“Yeah, tell me how good it feels,” he jeers, hiking Eiji’s hips up with a rough jerk to intensify the angle. He stabs his cock in again, even deeper and rougher than before, and Eiji _screams_.

“AHhng! Please!” he garbles around the spring. He must be in agony--there are tears openly running down his face now. He blubbers something else through his cries, trailing off in Japanese.

Ash is still shouting at them--trembling and arguing and threatening even though no one is listening. He has rubbed his wrists raw in the shackles above but he won’t stop straining against them. And yet, he’s on autopilot now. He is hardly aware of himself.

All he sees is the blood.

All he hears is Eiji crying--broken Japanese that no one understands slipping out with his sobs unconsciously. He must be desperate now.  

Arthur--the front of his crotch glaring a bright red--teasing him, saying, “Tell me how much you love it and I’ll finish.”

The way Eiji is screaming--Ash feels like his chest is about to explode. He can’t take it.

“ _Stah---stop! Plea-heeease. Please!_ ” Eiji cries.

“I’m not gonna stop until you say it,” Arthur laughs. He grabs Eiji by the hair and drags his head up so hard that the tip of the spring pops through his cheek, the gray sliver appearing just on the outside of his lip. “Say you fucking love it,” Arthur snarls over Eiji’s screams.  

 _Just say it,_ Ash thinks desperately. _It doesn’t mean anything--it’s all bullshit--just say whatever they wanna hear!_ His heart is hammering so fast he thinks he might collapse where he stands. Seeing Eiji hurt like this--seeing him in this much pain is the worst kind of torture that Arthur could have prepared for him.

“Say it, slut!”

“Ahhhh haa oh---fuck--please! I love it--” Eiji chokes out. His eyes are rolling back in his head, getting snapped front again with every brutal thrust.

Ash turns whiter than a ghost and his stomach falls to his feet.

“What?” Arthur pipes up a bit louder. “Pronounce your fucking words. Your English is shit.”  

“I love it, I love it, _uuhhgnn ahh!_ I love it, please I love it, I love it--” Eiji rambles, the words slipping away from him as he starts to lose consciousness.

There’s a smattering of laughter from around the room at that. Arthur smirks, pleased, and drops Eiji’s head back onto the metal frame, grabbing his hips more firmly to fuck to completion. “Good whore--yeah, take my big cock. I know you fucking love it,” he grunts. Before long, his hips stutter against Eiji’s bloodied ass as he finishes inside of the boy.

He sighs contentedly and leans back on his haunches. Beneath him, Eiji is still. The only signs of life are the small, mewling whines that creep out of him when Arthur finally pulls out all the way and hops off of the frame.

“A’ight. Who’s next?”

Ash jolts back to life at last. “No!” Eiji can’t take any more! “I get it! I’m sorry! Please don’t---just--” He looks around at the men desperately, wide, tear-filled eyes swiveling from one merciless face to the next. He finds no softness in any of them. “He’s had enough, trust me. He’s done,” Ash turns his gaze back in Arthur. “I know you don’t want me, but I’ll do anything you say. I’ll take care of the rest of them. Please, I’m begging you, just leave Eiji alone.”

Arthur seems to consider it. He glances back and forth between Eiji’s bare back-body and Ash before shrugging. “You’ll do anything I say, now, huh? Finally remembered your place?”

“Yes,” Ash vows.

“And what is your place, hmm?”

“I’m a prostitute,” Ash replies simply, looking Arthur straight in the eye. He doesn’t have time to be angry or humiliated by this. He has to save Eiji from any more injury.

“That’s right.” Arthur jabs a finger in Ash’s direction. “You’re a fucking whore and _I’m_  the leader of the gang. Isn’t that right?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

Arthur nods at him and points back to Eiji. “Every time you forget that, this one is going to suffer. You understand me?”

Does that mean they’re going to keep Eiji as a prisoner? Will they really pass him around the circuit like they threatened? Ash shakes his head slightly, horrified. “I swear, I will never cause any problems for Papa again. You don’t have to use him as leverage on me. I understand, now.”

“Well, we’ll see about that. Apparently you owe Golzine quite a bit, so what happens to your friend is up to him. But for now…I guess we’re done here.”  

 _Thank god…_  Ash finally feels like there’s space in his body next to the fear and the rage to breathe again. He sucks in a shaky breath and puts the terror of what will happen to them tomorrow aside for the time being.

For right now--for this moment--Eiji doesn’t have to suffer anything else.

 

“Let’s get him off of that,” Arthur gestures at Eiji. A pair of men move in to untie him at once. This time, when their hands fall on his naked body, he doesn’t even flinch. He is still.

Jostling the bed frame without care, the men work to untie Eiji’s wrists and ankles from the bars before pulling him up. His head stays stuck, though, and the yanking sensation rouses him. His eyes pop open and he whimpers weakly as the spring pulls on his face.

“Jesus, Arthur, there’s a fucking hook in his mouth,” one of them exclaims, sounding half-shocked, half-amused. Ash’ heart is up in his throat, choking the breath out of him again as he watches the men work the spring out of Eiji’s cheek with less than gentle hands. When it finally comes all the way out, they drag Eiji’s body over the edge of the frame and dump him on the ground beside it.

“Ash.”

Caught off guard, Ash turns his attention back to Arthur. _What now?_

“I’m going to let you down, too. But if you try anything funny, I’ll put him right back on there and we’ll all take a turn. Got me?”

“Yes. Of course,” he returns at once.

“Alright.” Arthur flicks a hand between the pair of goons and the place where Ash stands, still in chains. They move toward him obediently. A minute later, Ash’s hands fall to his sides, numb but free. Then the men step aside, freeing the line of sight between where Ash stands, frozen, and the place where Eiji lies limply on the cold ground.

“See to him,” Arthur instructs Ash. “I wanna hear you give him some advice before we take him back to his room.”

Ash’s mouth hangs open slightly. His breath has stalled in his chest again.

“And Ash?”

“Y-yeah?”

“He’s gonna walk back to his room. So wake him the fuck up. We don’t have time for any pretty, pretty, princess syndrome in this organization.”

Of course they would make Eiji walk--these cruel, merciless demons. Ash grits his teeth and nods back at Arthur, trying to appear non-threatening. Even a wrong look could be enough to make someone like Arthur decide to dish out more punishment. He _hates_ Ash, that much is clear.

When Arthur flicks his eyes in Eiji’s direction, Ash finally finds his feet. He goes to Eiji’s side at once, falling to his knees beside the boy’s crumpled form. “Eiji?” he says softly, his voice trembling as he reaches out to softly touch the Japanese boy’s shoulder. “Eiji, can you hear me?”

“Mmmnn,” Eiji groans. He is face down on the floor, his nose scraping over the stone when he tries to move.

“Oh my god, Eiji, I’m so sorry,” Ash whispers, his voice breaking and falling apart as he takes in Eiji’s form up close.

There are looping marks around his arms and his ankles where the ropes burned into his skin. The space between his legs, up and down the cleft of his ass, and smeared all over the back of his thighs are red with blood and more is trickling out of his hole when he tries to move--along with a smattering of Arthur’s cum.

And then when Ash carefully scoops the boy up into his arms, he sees his front--the pale flesh finely shredded by a vast array of cuts, some so thin that they have barely bled and others wide and open. From his forehead to his toes, he is criss-crossed with a million small injuries. But it’s the small hole in his cheek pierced by the rusty spring that sets Ash over the edge.

It’s too far. How can they ever come back from this?

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he cries, pulling Eiji into his arms and holding his injured body close to his chest.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOOOOO I did not draw this! That is the AMAZEBALLS piece of fanart that I mentioned in the chapter 1 notes (with the link.) I do not have the real link, I can only find the image on pinterest but the twitter link is broken so I CAN NOT FIND THE ARTIST. If you know who it is PLEASE TELL ME!!!!! I want to give them credit and I have been saying that from the beginning so it makes me sad when people be getting confused. 
> 
> \--Addy

**Author's Note:**

> Leave me your thoughts and comments! You know I love to read them.


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